Monday 4th January marks the period when the January transfer window opens in earnest (although some clubs managed to sneak a few in on New Year's Day), and the question, as ever, is how that will affect Yeovil Town. In past seasons, the January transfer window has been one to fill supporters with trepedation, and on a number of occasions, the squad has come out looking significantly weaker than it did going into the window.

The 2005-06 season saw Lee Johnson, Darren Way and Efe Sodje all sold, whilst the 2007-08 season saw the club lose Gary Dempsey, whilst Darren Way (again!) and James Walker returned to their parent clubs following loan periods. Even in the 2006-07 season, when Wembley was reached, it was the January transfer window that saw striker Leon Best recalled. Last season saw the club come out of January relatively in one piece, with Jonathan Worthington arriving during the final week of the transfer window, and only the retirement of Marc Bircham to speak of.

It's no great surprise to find that on the field of play, Yeovil have tended to stutter somewhat following the month of January and the second half of the season. The players sold or recalled during the month have proved hard to replace within the budgets the Glovers operate to in League One, and the net effect has been that bar the Wembley season, we've ended up looking downwards, rather than upwards or in the safety of midtable. In 2008-09 though, we slowly climbed up the table - bar a mad few weeks caused in part by the change of management - quite possibly because we held the squad together. January is therefore a very important month for the club.

Whilst some League One clubs will use January as an opportunity to go out and spend six figure sums on players, it can probably be safely assumed that the Glovers will not be doing that. Loans, free transfers and free agents have been the order of the day for many years for Yeovil Town and given that Chief Executive Martyn Starnes recently expressed disappointment with the level of crowds at Huish Park, it's probably safe to say that there's not too much spare cash doing the rounds that would allow that situation to change.

That said, taking George O'Callaghan, Andy Lindegaard and Louis Lavers off Yeovil's books will have freed up some wages. Assuming there is not a tightening of the purse strings there ought to be some room for replacements - if there are out of contract players available willing to accept the level of wages those three players were on.

In terms of squad strengthening it's going to be very difficult. Bringing in further loans will gain us little, because we already have five loans making up the spine of our team. In the past we've had the room to bring in a loan player during January to good effect, but that may not be so fruitful this time round.

Manager Terry Skiverton has said that he plans to recruit a sixth loanee during January, but with Football League rules only allowing five loan players in any single matchday squad, if we bring in a 6th, then either he or one of the others ends up sat in the stand. The sixth loan player may therefore give a degree of protection against injury or suspension for any of our main five loan players, but in general terms that won't strengthen the squad. And any 7th, 8th loanees would be done on rapidly diminishing returns, as we found out during the latter half of the 2007-08 season.

So to genuinely strengthen the team, the Glovers need a permanent signing. Yet given this is January and not June, how many players are there of a decent quality who are available on free transfers or as free agents? Most clubs give out 12 month contracts to players, so the amount of permanent players available in January is not going to be that great - unless you're willing to pay a transfer fee, or the selling club is so desperate to offload the player concerned that they are willing to give him to you on a freebie. Make no mistake, that isn't going to be easy if it's a quality player you're after. Barring a surprise dropping into Skiverton's lap, any permanent squad changes are likely to have to wait until the summer.

It's therefore quite possible that the January Transfer Window may be all about trying to preserve what we've already got. There is an inevitable fear of the unknown - that some of the club's more saleable assets such as Craig Alcock or Dean Bowditch may attract bids. But we can worry about that until the cows come home - if it happens, it happens, and the only thing Skiverton can do is to keep an eye out for replacements the second the initial enquiry for such a player comes in. The fly in the ointment there though, is that because of the "five loan players" rule, any replacement for any players sold during January, would have to be permanent signings, which brings us back to the problem of finding such players within the playing budget halfway through the season.

The best result for the Glovers in the transfer window could well be that at 5.00p.m. on Monday 1st February, that they are sat there with the exact same permanent squad and current five loan players that they have right now. After all, continuity in a football side is no bad thing, and with players like Dean Bowditch and Aidan Downes having missed half the season through injury, there is a chance that the Glovers may spend the second half of the season with a stronger squad than they had during the first half. Bar Skiverton's wish for a sixth loan player, the best news for January would therefore be no news at all.

A very sound analysis Badger and I agree with both your assessments and conclusion. A few unlucky results could put us under pressure but I think although this squad is always prone to leak a few goals it is always likely to score as well - home or away. If we could have an identical squad on Feb 1 as we have now I would take it for sure.
06/01/2010 00:37:42

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